Tyler’s Worked For Big Companies and Start-ups Since He Graduated in 2019, So You Could Say He’s An Expert…
Tyler just completed a six-week Marketing and Recruitment Internship with DigitalGrads – you might even recognise him by now. I decided to catch up with him just before he left to have a chat about interning, start-ups and graduates. This is how it went.
Hi Tyler! Can you start off by telling us a little about yourself?
“Hi Daisy! So I graduated from De Montford University last year – in 2019. I studied HR Management.”
Did you have a graduate job secured?
“It was my intention to try and find something after I graduated. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a graduate job before I finished, but I wanted to try and find something in HR straight away.
“It wasn’t easy. At the time I graduated there were a lot of entry-level opportunities, but no graduate opportunities.
“Ideally I wanted a graduate job because I knew that the company would have treated me like one. They would have taken the time to train me, get to know me and help me make that transition from being a graduate to being in full-time employment.”
What was it like to be fresh out of university, looking for a job?
“It wasn’t easy. But thanks to my university I found something quite quickly. They had an internship programme called Graduate Champions that helped us get experience in our fields. Obviously mine was human resource management. It definitely helped me narrow down my dream job and I’m thankful for it.
“So I applied and got the internship – I was Recruitment and Resourcing Coordinator for a few months early this year.
“If your university has an internship programme, then I would definitely recommend using it because finding full-time employment isn’t easy. It’s also a way of helping you get the experience that you need.
“But at the same time, I do think that it came too soon.
“It was my first position in HR and that transition from being a graduate to going into full-time employment was difficult.”
When you say ‘it came too soon’, what do you mean?
“I feel like I should’ve done something before taking on that job. I feel like this internship at DigitalGrads would have been perfect to take on just after graduating.
“The internship at my university was really serious business. It’s a big organisation run by managers, HR advisors and legal experts. There was a lot to deal with!
“I now know what working in a big organisation is like… and it might not be for me. Internships help you figure this out, though. And it all comes down to the individual and whether they’re ready to work in a big company or not. I think that I would have been ready for that job if I’d have worked in another job before it.”
Do you think that graduates are more suited to working in start-ups?
“I would definitely say that getting an experience with a start-up before going into a big organisation would have helped me. If things were the other way around and I’d have worked with DigitalGrads before going to work at the university, I think it would’ve been much better for me.”
Why do you think that is?
“It obviously depends on the working environment and the team, but the level of trust and support I’ve had working for a start-up has been great. A lot different to working at a big company.
“I feel like that could be to do with how serious the work is and the size of the organisation. The responsibilities I had at the university were a lot more serious than the ones I had at DigitalGrads.
“This all plays a part in why it could be better to work at a smaller organisation first.
“So start-ups are probably better for graduates.”
My conversation with Tyler continues here!
If you’re looking to secure that graduate start-up job like Tyler recommends, check out our jobs board!